If You Want Anything Said Ask a Man, Want Anything Done Ask a Woman

Dear Quote Investigator: I have been trying to learn about a sentence supposedly said by Margaret Thatcher who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1980s. The version I was told is:

If you want a speech made you should ask a man, but if you want something done you should ask a woman.

This is a fascinating statement, but I am incredulous. Could you investigate? Where and when did she say this? Or is this another fake quotation?

Quote Investigator: Yes, QI will look into this provocative remark for you. Two important reference works, the Yale Book of Quotations [YQMT] and the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations [OQMT], list a version of this saying that appeared in People magazine in 1975. This instance of the adage includes the prefatory phrase “In politics”. Here is an excerpt from People [PMT]:

The Yale Book of Quotations also states, “Thatcher is said to have used this in a 1965 speech.” Yes, QI can report that a newspaper called the Evening News on May 20, 1965 quotes Thatcher using the phrase when addressing a women’s group.

Available on CD-ROM only. 1400. MT spoke on the theme “Woman – No Longer a Satellite”. The Evening News report of this speech is the origin of a phrase often attributed to her: “In politics, if you want anything said ask a man, if you want anything done ask a woman.”

QI obtained the CD-ROM titled “Margaret Thatcher: Complete Public Statements 1945-1990” and then attempted to locate a computer with the proper version of the Windows operating system to read the CD-ROM. QI succeeded in this task, but the issue of data migration was highlighted. QI hopes that this invaluable database can be migrated to a repository where it will remain accessible to future generations.

The CD-ROM contains a description of Margaret Thatcher’s speech taken from the 1965 Annual report of the group that she was addressing. Unfortunately, this report does not include the quotation. The CD-ROM mentions another item. A “page one quote” in the Evening News newspaper of May 20, 1965 [CDMT]:

“In politics, if you want anything said ask a man, if you want anything done ask a woman.”—Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, Cons MP for Finchley, speaking to the National Council of the Townwomen’s Guilds in London this afternoon.

Continuing with selected citations in chronological order, the adage was repeated in People magazine in 1975 as already noted. In a Florida paper in 1982 another version of Thatcher’s maxim was given that is closer to the one at the top of this blog post. It does not contain the prefatory phrase “In politics” [MNMT]:

Thatcher, 56, the mother of twins, described today’s women as emancipated, said men have a way to go. To her way of thinking, “If you want a speech to be made, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.”

In 1990 Thatcher gave a speech in which she stated a version of the maxim while at the same time mentioning that she had used it in the previous year. The event was a luncheon speech at the Guildhall Banqueting Suite in the City of London as recorded at the margaretthatcher.org website [GBMT]:

I came across some words of your present Chairman, which sum up the role of women very well: “Practical work gets done by women. They don’t waste time. If there’s a job to do, a project to organise, they get on with it.” This echoes something I said last year: “if you want someone to make a speech, ask a man; if you want to get something done, ask a woman”.

In conclusion, Margaret Thatcher did pronounce this maxim. There are two closely related versions and evidence indicates that she has used both. QI thanks you for your question, and he hopes that you will be able to both say something and do something worthwhile now and in the future.

(Many thanks to Fred Shapiro the quotation expert and editor of the Yale Book of Quotations for helping to inspire this exploration.)

[YQMT] 2006, The Yale Book of Quotations by Fred R. Shapiro, Page 754, Yale University Press, New Haven. (Verified on paper)